Call for Chapters - Engaging Undergraduates in Primary Source Research (Rowman & Littlefield's Innovation in Information Literacy series)

Call for Chapters

Lijuan Xu is  soliciting chapter proposals for a book entitled Engaging Undergraduates in Primary Source Research. Part of Rowman & Littlefield’s Innovations in Information Literacy series, this book seeks to present success stories of how faculty and librarians can create and facilitate engaging and productive learning experiences with primary sources in the undergraduate classrooms. The co-authored chapters (5,000 words) by librarians and their faculty partners will showcase the work of librarians from various areas of library operations and their faculty collaborators in different disciplines, including the sciences and social sciences.

Sample topics include:

• Constructing settler colonialism from the indigenous perspectives
• Understanding human-and-nature dynamics through local landscapes
• Exploring the legacy of the Black Arts Movement through music
• Mapping and tracing the globalization of commodities

Each case study should center on how students learn and practice information literacy competencies through their engagement with primary sources. By focusing on competencies that are applicable and transferrable across disciplinary boundaries, the case studies and the featured activities and assignments should be easily adopted by faculty and librarians to enhance or transform their primary source-related teaching practices.

Chapter structure:

• Why the faculty member teaches with primary sources
• The institutional context
• How the faculty-librarian collaboration came about
• What the collaboration involves: conversations, assignments and activities, library sessions and class discussions, etc. - Include guidelines—the ACRL Information Literacy Framework, the Primary Source Literacy guidelines, and discipline-specific guidelines—if they have informed your work.
• Outcomes and assessment
• Reflection
• Conclusion

Timeline:

• 600-800 word chapter proposal and tentative title—November 1, 2019
• Notification of proposal acceptance—early January, 2020
• First draft of the completed chapter—May 31, 2020
• Feedback to contributors—July 31, 2020
• Revised chapter to the editor—September 15, 2020
• Feedback, including if the chapter draft is accepted or declined—November 15, 2020
• Final draft to the editor—February, 2021

Please send your proposal, including author names, titles, and affiliations, to xul@lafayette.edu. 

Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Editor: Lijuan Xu, Associate Director of Research & Instructional Services
Skillman Library, Lafayette College, Easton, PA 18042